WikiCred/Grants

Call for Proposals: 2022

Past projects

IMPORTANT

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The WikiCred grant deadline has been extended to December 5.

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Description

The WikiCred Project offers small grants from $1,000 to $10,000 to individuals and teams with proven records of working in the open knowledge movement as well as newcomers with new and fresh ideas on how to support credibility on the internet. (Smaller proposals are also welcome, but may be bundled together.) Applications from all geographical regions are welcome.

Applicants are encouraged to apply in teams. In some cases, applicants may be approached to edit parts of their applications or resubmit complementary information for full consideration. Applicants will receive a response about the status of applications by late December 2022.

Review criteria include:

Clarity of the idea/project
Diversity and added benefit to the diversity of the Wikimedia community
Capacity and skills to deliver
Achievability of the project within the proposed timeline
Understanding of project challenges and ways to overcome them
Overall impact on credibility, information reliability and open-knowledge movement's role in the information ecosystem.

Submit your ideas and help us shape the role of the Wikimedia movement in the larger information ecosystem.

View the CFP and application form.

View previously funded projects.

Mission

The WikiCred Project supports research and software projects, Wikimedia events, as well as small-production, high-scale initiatives around the world, which focus on improving and information literacy and credibility on the internet and beyond. The project offers grant opportunities to those seeking to shape the Wikimedia community’s role in the larger information ecosystem.

Inclusivity

The WikiCred team values inclusivity. We would like to reach out especially to projects that have the potential to reach out and onboard new and diverse members to the Wikimedia movement and efforts to support credibility and information trust around subjects such as climate science data and information, health information as well as policy and political media.

Impact

The Project’s primary goal is to support scalable impact. As members of the Wikimedia movement, we want to elevate ideas and projects that improve information reliability and credibility in the larger information ecosystem on the internet and in the real world through a myriad of open knowledge tools including the many Wikimedia projects.

Call for Proposals

Applicants are encouraged to review the official Call for Proposals.

Apply

The application portal can be accessed via the Call for Proposals.

Get involved

Researchers, Wikimedians, credibility enthusiasts and members of the open knowledge community can get involved in the credibility movement by keeping in touch with us on this page or joining the discussion tab. You can find recent information and updates about new funded projects at wikicred.org.

Who are we?

Current grant cycle

WikiCred grants are made available with the collaboration of Hacks/Hackers, Ahmed X. Medien, a community and knowledge mobilization organizer in the information integrity space, and members of Wikimedia DC and the New England Wikimedians.

The first round of grants was sponsored by Craig Newmark; the second round starting in 2022 is supported by Craig Newmark and the Wikimedia Foundation.

Ahmed X. Medien is a knoweldge mobilization and a convener of ideas and practice in the information integrity and online speech spaces. He launched and spearheaded misinformation projects within Hacks/Hackers including MisinfoCon and WikiCred. In 2021, Ahmed X. Medien applied for and received the Wikimedia Alliances Fund grant for knowledge equity to launch another grant cycle of WikiCred.

Hacks/Hackers is an international, grassroots journalist organization whose mission is to create a network of journalists (“hacks”) and technologists (“hackers”) who rethink the future of news and information.

Wikimedians including Kevin Payravi (SuperHamster), Samuel Klein (Sj) and Ariel Cetrone (Ariel Cetrone (WMDC), along with members of the Wikimedia movement and Wikimedia DC serve to connect Wikimedians with opportunities provided by WikiCred.

Past grant cycles and other related activities

In previous years, WikiCred was supported, promoted and prioritized by organizations and initiatives that prioritize Wikimedia and credibility activities online. They are:

Credibility Coalition is a research community that fosters collaborative approaches to understanding the veracity, quality and credibility of online information. We incubate activities and initiatives that bring together people and institutions from a variety of backgrounds.

MisinfoCon is a global movement focused on building solutions to online trust, verification, fact-checking, and reader experience in the interest of addressing misinformation in all of its forms. In 2020, the first health and science MisinfoCon was held at the National Academies of Sciences in Washington DC where we brought together professionals, academics, journalists and practitioners from the fields of public health and science. MisinfoCon started as a large gathering at MIT in February 2017. That conference brought together ambassadors from technology platforms, news organizations, as well as experts in social science, media literacy, policy, advocacy and cybersecurity. And more recent

WikiConference North America (WCNA) is the annual conference of Wikimedia enthusiasts and volunteers from across North America, including the United States, Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean. The 2019 conference took place in Cambridge, Massachusetts, November 8–11 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.